8/17/20 Happenings in Carter Page vs DNC
A federal judge in Chicago has tossed out a lawsuit former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page filed against the Democratic National Committee over the so-called dossier it commissioned in 2016 that alleged Page and other Trump allies colluded with Russia.
U.S. District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber dismissed the suit Monday on technical grounds, ruling that the Chicago-based court lacked jurisdiction over the DNC and other defendants in the case, including law firm Perkins Coie and partners Marc Elias and Michael Sussman.
Leinenweber said the DNC and the firm lacked sufficient ties to Northern Illinois to be sued there and the events related to the suit had virtually no connection to the region.
“On its face, the Complaint fails to establish an Illinois connection,” wrote Leinenweber, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan. “Plaintiffs’ claims consist entirely of out-of-state activity by out-of-state actors.”
Page claimed in the suit that Perkins Coie used its Chicago office as the law firm “orchestrated” the preparation of the dossier by the private investigation firm Fusion GPS.
However, Leinenweber’s 10-page ruling called that “baseless conjecture.”
Page’s attorneys alleged that the law firm leaned on its Chicago operations for DNC work before and during President Barack Obama’s term in office. Page’s team also noted that the firm’s Chicago general counsel was involved in responding to a House subpoena related to the dossier in 2017.
But the judge said that wasn’t enough, and he also declined Page’s request for discovery into the defendants’ ties to Chicago. “The Court will not authorize a fishing expedition,” Leinenweber wrote.
Spokespeople for the DNC and Perkins Coie didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.
A lawyer for Page in the Chicago suit, John Pierce, expressed disappointment in the court’s ruling.
“This if far from the end of Carter Page’s campaign to hold the DNC and Perkins Coie accountable for their role in what happened to him over the past several years,” Pierce told POLITICO by email. “We are reviewing the opinion now, and we will be determining our next step soon. Carter Page does not quit, and neither does his legal team. We will not relent until justice is done, and until those who are responsible for the most brazen criminal conspiracy in American political history are brought to justice.”
Page has found no traction for a series of self-filed lawsuits he brought over the preparation of the dossier by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, as well as media reports about the compilation.
A defamation suit he filed against the DNC in federal court in Oklahoma in 2018 was also thrown out for lack of jurisdiction over both Page and the defendants.
Another suit accusing Yahoo, HuffPost and Radio Free Europe of libel for their reports related to Page was dismissed by a federal judge in New York that year. Lawyers for Page refiled the case in a Delaware state court last month.
Much of the litigation preceded a blockbuster Justice Department inspector general report released last December that found numerous deficiencies and inaccuracies in applications the FBI and senior Justice Department officials submitted to conduct secret surveillance of Page.
Although Page was a marginal figure in the Trump campaign, he has now emerged as a cause célèbre of sorts for the president and Republican lawmakers, who have bitterly complained about Page’s treatment by the FBI and about law enforcement’s reliance on the dossier to fuel suspicions about the Trump campaign.
A Privacy Act lawsuit Page filed against the Justice Department last year over the dossier and the investigation into him remains pending before a federal judge in Washington.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/17/judge-tosses-carter-page-suit-dnc-dossier-397074
Reminder that Carter Page's attorney, John Pierce, is also representing Rudy Guiliani and presumably personal friend of Guiliani.